Stung by negative news, Bihar govt bars reporters from entering quarantine centres

In an attempt to stop the media from reporting the ground situation on how the Bihar government is tackling Covid-19, the state Chief Secretary has barred reporters from entering the quarantine camps that have been setup to keep coronapositive patients. The said order was passed by Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar on Wednesday morning while interacting with the various district magistrates of the state through video-conferencing. After the orders of the Chief Secretary, the respective DMs directed their subordinates that “in no circumstances” media personnel will be allowed inside the quarantine camps. One such official order accessed by The Daily Guardian states that no media men will be allowed inside the camps. No reason for such a decision has been mentioned in the order. This recent development has come after multiple media reports and observations by members of the judiciary showed the sorry state of the affairs of the quarantine camps in the state.

The Daily Guardian too, last week, had carried a story – “Judge sheds light on mishandling of Covid patients in Bihar”— d e t a i l i n g t h e situation of a quarantine camp in Sheohar where the doctors were moving inside the quarantine camps without wearing any PPE suit due to the non-availability of the same. Earlier this week, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal too had raised question on the Nitish Kumar government’s way of tackling Covid-19 in the state. Earlier on Tuesday, 20 migrant labourers who had returned from other states and were put under 21-day quarantine in Katihar district of Bihar escaped the quarantine centre as they were reportedly not getting food.

On Wednesday evening, the local media was barred from entering the Danapur railway station, where the trains carrying people from Bihar, who were stuck in other states, was terminating. This exercise was carried out after the media showed how a government official, in the presence of the local SSP, took her daughter straight to his home in his personal car, rather than letting her go for the mandatory quarantine. The official, when asked by the media for digressing from the laid down rules, said that he taken the permission to take her daughter from the SSP